Yucca, Beyond Cordage

Yucca or other wild bast fibers found in nature tend to be used as quick cordage for quick emergency type lashing needs. I however decided to take this beyond cordage. I have a large tank full of dried and dead Yucca leaves soaking and retting in the tank to help with the process of scraping the leaves to release the fibers. Once the fibers are scraped the fibers are less likely to become brittle and cause the whole thing to break. So removing the non-fibrous parts you will have a fiber will be softer and resist breakage. I used three leaves and released the fibers then took the fibers and combed them in an old hand carder then today I went to my studio and ran the fibers through my old antique hackle. That process softened up the fiber and cleaned it up even more. I took that fiber and spun it on the spinning wheel then plied the resulting thread and made a nice two ply Yucca thread suitable for weaving cloth. This process does take time. I will empty the tank tomorrow then rinse it off with fresh water than let it soak a bit more before I scrape all the leaves and gather a large bundle of fiber then hackle it and spin it. Maybe even put it on my small loom to see what kind of fabric I can get from the loom. It will be a plain weave. Likely what would have been done long ago on warp weighted looms. Next in the tank will be Mulberry tree branches to rett in the water to help release the fibers and when soft I will run those through my cane crushing to help release those fibers evermore. I will do the same process for the Hollyhock stems I have collected to see what kind of fiber I can get from those. They will be dried, soaked run through my crusher then soaked again then dried and run through the crusher again to see if I can get some decent fiber that can be carded into a nice fiber suitable for spinning on the spinning wheel. Fun with natures fiber. Go beyond cordage. Make some actual cloth from these.

[@andrewhondo]

lol you make this look easy i have to do this by hand and roll it on my pant lets and twist it over to make cordage best yucca cordage video making i have ever seen thumbs up sir

[@williammoss4828]

Very cool. This video inspired me to scavenge a large yucca plant out of a neighbor's garbage pile. Now I am going to attempt to process it into fiber. Thank you!

[@abittwisted]

Leave a link to the photos or video of your process or your final results. Others will love to check it out.

[@GrizzlyGroundswell]

YES! This is amazing! I knew it could be done but I wasn't successful at it! This is very exciting! Bravo!

[@rosethorne9155]

Absolutely fascinating! I have been wondering for a few years how finely yucca could be spun, as I have mainly seen it worked up as rope or cordage. Thank you for this educational video!

[@abittwisted]

It is a bit of prep work but it can be done. My Yucca is still in the retting tank. Going to add in some Mulberry branches shortly to jump start the process again. Lots of lovely little creatures living in the water right now. Good for microscope work.

[@Janetnva2000]

I’m totally impressed, not just with the fiber, which is marvelous, but also with the way you are using your Ashford Traditional wheel. Forty years ago, I got mine and I have seen a new way. I’m going to flip my flyer and change the lead to whatever the name of that way is. If it doesn’t work with the WoolieWinder, I’ll put the original flyer back on and do it your way. I’ve never really enjoyed spinning flax, but I did it for demos. I think I’m going to love it now. Thanks a billion!!!

[@abittwisted]

I have done nothing to this wheel. It is setup as I purchased the wheel. It is setup as a Scotch Tension and works great for spinning flax, yucca and wool. I do have flyers for dual setups where I can do DD setup or Scotch Tension and I have an Ashford spindle that will work on both the new and old versions of the Ashford wheel. I also have a woolee winder setup and if you have a woolee winder for a newer Ashford you will need to reconfigure the mother of all to reflect the proper positioning. I did that on my OLD ashford wheel. The woolee winder is my go to flyer setup on my ashford. It is fast and I don’t have to stop to change hooks. Makes for a nice smooth bobbin. My woolee winder is a dual one as well. I can set it up for double drive or scotch tension. Im currently using it in scotch tension mode for my super fine thread singles spun from 100 plus year old flax fiber from germany.

[@sherryperry67]

Very interesting!

[@mozartpaiva1]

Great video!

[@kellyroup4262]

This is an excellent vid! I've always wanted to see if it could be spun on a wheel. I like maguey much better than what I'm assuming is the narrow leaf that you're using. It is stretchy when wet and is nature's Spyder wire. If used to make a suit like Carhartt it would be almost indestructible. I made a 20 inch tippet for my wife and put the smallest hook she had on it by tying it through the eye! She caught 51 and it broke. She caught a 1.5 lb. bass and an even bigger catfish and quite a few perch. It's slightly elastic when wet and not as rough when twisted.

[@Jlind9335]

Just getting interested in making fiber first I heard of using Yucca. It goes everywhere here. Is there anything special about gathering it? Just found your channel. Looks like you have been doing this for a while with all the wheels. I am envious of all the wheels and the loom I see. Trying hard not to covet it all.

[@abittwisted]

I mostly do Flax to spin into linen thread for the loom. I do wool as well but focusing on flax. The Yucca is just mostly for fun. Many people harvest the leaves green. I don't. I wait until the leaves have pretty much dried up then process them by soaking them then scraping them to remove the fibers. Im going to try my hand at splicing the fibers for weaving. I have been trying to do that with flax too. Im going to try again some Milkweed and going to get some Mulberry soaking for some fiber from the thin stems from that tree. So far Mulberry tree bark makes some mighty strong fiber but not suitable for clothing in my opinion.

[@wandapease-gi8yo]

Fascinating, not because I can spin ( I know why it’s called a drop spindle, it is because it drops as I try and spin with it. I. Interested from videos I’ve been watching about the ancient people of the southwest before 1472 and what they would have worn. I knew that there were no modern sheep so wool clothing was out. It didn’t occur to me that cotton grew here, and was used to spin and weave cloth (since it was not common in Northern Europe since it didn’t spin well with their equipment until the 13-14 centuries). Yucca fiber seems to be a no brainer but . . . Obviously I was hung up on what was not available rather than looking at what was available. Now, how about the Pacific Northwest?

[@abittwisted]

Stinging Nettle which grows in the damp shade along the rivers. It provides much better quality cloth than Yucca. Once you initially process it there is no chance of prickly pokes from the stings. That is only on the outside of the plant and not where the fiber resides. If you search The Nettle Dress on youtube you will see a trailer of a documentary that was made about a guy that took 7 years to harvest and process stinging nettle to make a dress. The same nettle grows in our Pacific Northwest. It actually grows in many areas of the world. There are FB pages that deal with Nettle. Go to facebook and search for Nettles For Textiles and then join the group. There you can search for the nettle dress and see a bunch more that was incorporated into the documentary. Ive been following them for 6 years which is how long I have been doing the fiber thing.

[@abittwisted]

But you can spin if you want to learn. Drop spindles are slower but they do work well. There are many ways to spin the fiber without a drop spindle or spinning wheel.

[@abittwisted]

On youtube search for Mayan Hand Spinner. It may be something easier than a drop spindle for you. Suitable for any fiber spinning.

[@munchkin5674]

I wish you could have really zoomed in closer to your hands so that we could see the fibers as they spin into cordage.

[@abittwisted]

When I process more this summer I will do just that. I will also process enough to make a small piece of cloth on my sample loom.

[@abittwisted]

I’ll get the camera right in so you can see clearly next time. I do have video spinning flax up close which is very similar to what this was except this fiber is a bit coarser. I will also use water next time when I spin. It will be a better quality thread.

[@munchkin5674]

@@abittwisted Thanks! : )